Was it falling takings, spiralling costs or rapacious parking rules that did
for star confectioner Simon Dunn?

Not many things put a smile on the face of Sir Alex Ferguson but the chocolates created by Simon Dunn do. Or rather did, because the shop from which he sold them has just closed down. Simon Dunn Chocolatier was situated in Wilmslow, epicentre of the Cheshire footballer belt, where wealthy Premier League stars build their discreet gin palaces. Sir Alex, architect of Manchester United’s modern greatness, was among his customers.

There has been money in Wilmslow for as long as anyone can remember. Lots. The Aston Martin dealership in the town sells more cars than any other in the country, and more champagne is glugged within its environs than in any other town in Britain of comparable size. But not everyone in Wilmslow is rich; and the recession has bitten here, too.

When people decide to cut back on their spending, sales of mass-produced chocolate tend to hold up, it being a cheap pleasure. But that is not the case with the luxury handmade kind, as Mr Dunn has discovered to his cost. His shop is one of the latest additions to the lengthening casualty list issuing from the British high street as economic slowdown, changes in buying habits and other factors continue to exert a deadly effect on small retail businesses.

Mr Dunn announced the closure of the shop and its adjoining café, opened in 2007, in a letter pinned to the front of his premises in Alderley Road. The sentiments it contains will be familiar to thousands of shop-owners considering their own future.

Explaining that he was left with only £100 to live on, even in a good week, he wrote: “Nothing left for me and I’m the one running round trying to keep it all ticking over, lying awake at night trying to work out how to increase sales by doing everything possible. I hoped to have told you about this prior to closing but was too emotional to do this.”

Mr Dunn offers more detail as he empties the shop of equipment, preparing to transfer his chocolate-making to premises in Macclesfield, from where his business will be conducted online.

“I’m afraid independent traders on the high street don’t have a chance these days in this economic climate,” he says. “In the not too distant future, all that will be left on the British high street is Tesco, Costa [Coffee] and charity shops. It’s just impossible for people like me to keep our heads above water.”

The figures he produces are stark and dispiriting. Despite takings of £208,000 in the last year — hardly bad business – his accounts were bled white by a combination of rent (£36,000), rates (£16,000), VAT (£42,000), ingredient and packaging costs (£42,000), wages (£69,000) and other expenses.

The closure of Simon Dunn Chocolatier is one more business loss to the safe Conservative seat of Tatton, the Member of Parliament for which is one George Osborne.

“It’s so sad,” says Mr Dunn. “We tried and tried, adapting the business where we could, including much cheaper but still bespoke products in our range, like chocolate lollipops with people’s names on, but we have finally had to admit defeat. The shop was initially such a great success – we were taking £6,000 a week in the early months – but then the recession kicked in and we have not been able to recover quickly enough to keep up with rising costs. We are a luxury purchase, and when people have that bit less to spend, things like high-end chocolates take the hit.”

There are other reasons too: increases in tax and rates, and the price of cocoa. Competition also, from the big coffee chains that have helped — along with mini big-chain supermarkets - turn Britain’s 5,000 high streets into thoroughfares of increasingly bland uniformity.

“People here in Wilmslow are all struggling and desperate for business,” says Mr Dunn of his fellow small retailers. “Another small coffee shop has just closed across town. We have Costa, Café Nero and Starbucks. My coffee shop was 50 per cent of my business but there was so much competition. Shopkeepers in Wilmslow are all saying the same thing,” he adds. “We can’t make it pay and we need help. For some, it’s already too late.”

The Chancellor might like to reflect on the burdens heaped on people like Mr Dunn, a self starter of the kind supposedly lauded by the Conservative Party. Take VAT, which has risen from 17.5 to 20 per cent, and a rating system that saw Mr Dunn having to pay hundreds of pounds a year extra simply for installing a WC in the coffee shop.

And then there is parking, that baleful influence on shopping habits. When people shop against the clock, rushing to beat the traffic warden, they don’t dawdle around in places like Simon Dunn Chocolatier. Parking is one of the nation’s few growth industries – the tax that dares not speak its name. Parking charges and fines netted town halls £565 million in profits in 2011/12, up £54 million on 2010/11. Only 52 out of 359 councils reported a loss on their parking operations. The forecast profit for 2013/14 is a staggering £635 million.

Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, says parking should not be a “cash cow” for local authorities, and is proposing a 15-minute period during which motorists can park on double yellow lines. Attacking the current “persecution” of motorists, which is helping to kill off small shops, he argues: “We need to give people the good grace to pop into a local corner shop for 10 minutes, to buy a newspaper or a loaf of bread without risking a £70 fine.”

It is too late for Mr Dunn but he agrees in principle. “Parking is a huge issue. The number of customers who rushed in to buy a small box then rushed out, saying they’d get a fine – it destroys the idea of leisure shopping. We couldn’t load deliveries near our shop because of the army of wardens prowling Wilmslow. My staff and I have been booked a dozen times.

“It’s infuriating, and it inevitably drives people to the out-of-town supermarkets. The only time we have had free parking is in the run-up to Christmas, and the rise in business is staggering. People say, 'Why can’t we have this all year?’ One thing they can do to attract people back into towns is free parking.”

But there are greater forces at work – tidal changes in the retail economy that may be irreversible. More than half of consumer spending in the United Kingdom now happens off the high street, either out of town or online. One in six high street shops is vacant, and the Centre for Retail Research estimates that 62,000 more shops will close by 2018, almost half in the high street, with the loss of 316,000 jobs. Online retailing, enjoying lower overheads, is expected to constitute 22 per cent of the market by 2018. Consumer spending has increased by 12 per cent since 2006, but retail operating costs have risen by 20 per cent. The economy is growing too slowly to correct this imbalance.

Mr Dunn franchised the Simon Dunn Chocolatier brand, and one of those operating under the name is his daughter, who runs the shop in Macclesfield from which he will operate online. “We are over-taxed and over-managed,” he sighs. “Selling on the net should help me to rebuild: but something is lost when a shop like ours shuts. Supermarkets have stolen the true taste of food from us. Bread, cheese, meat, even chocolate – supermarket products all have less flavour than products you find in specialist shops. We are blanding our high streets, our diets, our lives.”